Jeff Potter

This study examines how age moderates gender differences in Five-Factor Model personality traits across cultures. Prior research suggests that women generally score higher than men on these traits, with a larger gender gap observed in personality traits in more economically developed, egalitarian, and individualistic countries. Gender differences also vary across age, yet the timing of these changes and the extent to which they are culturally universal remain unclear. Using multilevel modeling in a large cross-sectional online sample (N = 3,038,567; ages 10-65 years, 68 countries), we found that age significantly moderated gender differences in Five-Factor Model personality traits, with substantial cross-national variation. The gender gap in Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness was wider among older adults in countries with higher levels of individualistic and self-expressive values, higher Human Development Education Index scores, and later mean ages at first marriage and childbearing for women. These findings suggest that broader educational, cultural, and family-related contexts may shape the expression of personality traits across the lifespan. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Age, cohort, and period effects are three ways to explain personality trait change over time. While past research mostly focused on age differences, showing relatively consistent patterns, evidence for cohort differences is more mixed, and period differences have hardly been examined. However, age, period, and cohort are exactly collinear (age = period-cohort), such that estimates are likely confounded and always hinge on so-called identification assumptions. Identification assumptions shape substantive conclusions, and inappropriate or inconsistent strategies may explain past discrepant findings. To address this age-period-cohort identification problem in personality change, we leveraged four large-scale (N_total > 2 Mio) repeated cross-sectional data sets from 2003 to 2022. Our aims were to demonstrate how identification assumptions common in personality studies impact estimates for age, cohort, and period and to use weaker, substantively informed assumptions to narrow down the range of plausible solutions. Results showed that common identification strategies of constraining one temporal effect to zero can dramatically affect conclusions-less for age-graded, but more for generational differences. Using weaker assumptions, our results indicated that all three factors-age, cohort, and period-likely contribute to trait differences over time. Assuming age-graded change in a certain direction revealed cohort-related decreases in extraversion, openness, and neuroticism and increases in agreeableness, alongside period-related increases in extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness. This suggests that several previously assumed cohort differences may actually be driven by period effects, overlooked due to strong identification assumptions. Overall, highlighting the importance of appropriate identification strategies, our results offer unique insights into factors driving trait differences over time. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Breakthrough innovations are expected to have a bigger impact on local economies than incremental innovations do. Yet past research has largely neglected the regional drivers of breakthrough innovations. Building on theories that highlight the role of personality psychology and human agency in shaping regional innovation cultures, we focus on psychological openness as a potential explanation for why some regions produce more breakthrough innovations than others do. We use a large data set of psychological personality profiles (∼1.26M individuals) to estimate the openness of people in metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the US. Our results reveal that psychological openness is strongly associated with the emergence of breakthrough innovations but not with the emergence of incremental innovations. The findings remained robust after controlling for an extensive set of predictors of regional innovation such as star inventors, star scientists, or knowledge diversity. The results held even when we used tolerance as an alternative indicator of openness. Taken together, our results provide robust evidence that openness is relevant for regional innovation performance, serving as an important predictor for breakthrough innovations but not for incremental innovations.

Are there universal patterns in musical preferences? To address this question, we built on theory and research in personality, cultural, and music psychology to map the terrain of preferences for Western music using data from 356,649 people across six continents. In Study 1 (N = 284,935), participants in 53 countries completed a genre favorability measure, and in Study 2 (N = 71,714), participants in 36 countries completed an audio-based measure of preferential reactions to music. Both studies included self-report measures of the Big Five personality traits and demographics. Results converged to show that individual differences in preferences for Western music can be organized in terms of five latent factors that are invariant (i.e., universal) across countries and that generalize across assessment methods. Furthermore, the patterns of correlations between personality traits and musical preferences were largely consistent across countries and assessment methods. For example, trait Extraversion was correlated with stronger reactions to Contemporary musical styles (which feature rhythmic, upbeat, and electronic attributes), whereas trait Openness was correlated with stronger reactions to Sophisticated musical styles (which feature complex and cerebral attributes often heard in improvisational and instrumental music). The patterns of correlations between musical preferences and gender differences, ethnicity, and other sociodemographic metrics were also largely invariant across countries. Together, these findings strongly suggest that there are universal patterns in preferences for Western music, providing a foundation on which to develop and test hypotheses about the interactions between music, psychology, biology, and culture. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Since Trump was elected U.S. President in 2016, researchers have sought to explain his support, with some focusing on structural factors (e.g., economics) and others focusing on psychological factors (e.g., negative emotions). We integrate these perspectives in a regional analysis of 18+ structural variables capturing economic, demographic, and health factors as well as the aggregated neuroticism scores of 3+ million individuals. Results revealed that regions that voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 had high levels of neuroticism and economic deprivation. Regions that voted for Trump also had high anti-Black implicit bias and low ethnic diversity, though Trump made gains in ethnically diverse regions in 2020. Trump's voter base differed from the voter base of more traditional Republican candidates and Democrat Bernie Sanders. In sum, structural and psychological factors both explain Trump's unique authoritarian appeal.

Levels of fertility and the shape of the age-specific fertility schedule vary substantially across U.S. regions with some states having peak fertility relatively early and others relatively late. Structural institutions or economic factors partly explain these heterogeneous patterns, but regional differences in personality might also contribute to regional differences in fertility. Here, we evaluated whether variation in extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience measured at the U.S. state-level was associated with the level, timing, and context of fertility across states above and beyond sociodemographics, voting behavior, and religiosity. Generally, states with higher levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness had more traditional fertility patterns, and states with higher levels of neuroticism and openness had more nontraditional fertility patterns, even after controlling for established correlates of fertility (r ~ |.50|). Personality is an overlooked correlate that can be leveraged to understand the existence and persistence of fertility differentials.

Significance: According to a fundamental assumption in the social sciences, the burden of lower socioeconomic status (SES) is more severe in developing nations. In contrast to this assumption, recent research has shown that the burden of lower SES is less—not more—severe in developing nations. In three large-scale global data sets, we show that national religiosity can explain this puzzling finding. Developing nations are more religious, and most world religions uphold norms that, in part, function to ease the burden of lower SES and to cast a bad light on higher SES. In times of declining religiosity, this finding is a call to scientists and policymakers to monitor the increasingly harmful effects of lower SES and its far-reaching social consequences.

Accumulating evidence suggests that culture changes in response to shifting socioecological conditions; economic development is a particularly potent driver of such change. Previous research has shown that economic development can induce slow but steady cultural changes within large cultural entities (e.g., countries). Here we propose that economically driven culture change can occur rapidly, particularly in smaller cultural entities (e.g., cites). Drawing on work in cultural dynamics, urban economics, and geographical psychology, we hypothesize that changes in local housing prices-reflecting changing availability of local amenities-can induce rapid shifts in local cultures of Openness. We propose two mechanisms that might underlie such cultural shifts: selective migration (i.e., people selectively moving to cities that offer certain amenities) and social acculturation (i.e., people adapting to changing amenities in their city). Based on trait Openness scores of 1,946,752 U.S. residents, we track annual changes in local Openness across 199 cities for 9 years (2006-2014). We link these data to annual information on local housing markets, an established proxy for local amenities. To test interdependencies between the time series of local housing markets and Openness, we use Panel Vector Autoregression modeling. In line with our hypothesis, we find robust evidence that rising housing costs predict positive shifts in local Openness but not vice versa. Additional analyses leveraging participants' duration of residence in their city suggest that both selective migration and social acculturation contribute to shifts in local Openness. Our study offers a new window onto the rapid changes of cultures at local levels. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Significance: Childhood lead exposure causes lifelong psychological problems, which may be more extensive than previously thought. In a sample of over 1.5 million people, we found that US and European residents who grew up in areas with higher levels of atmospheric lead had less adaptive personality profiles in adulthood (lower conscientiousness, lower agreeableness, and higher neuroticism), even when accounting for socioeconomic status. These effects were driven by participants ages 20 to 39. In a natural experiment, reductions of leaded gasoline in the United States following the 1970 Clean Air Act corresponded with increases in psychologically healthy personality traits. These results suggest that even low-level lead exposure may adversely impact personality traits, harming the well-being, longevity, and economic prospects of millions of people.

People enjoy well-being benefits if their personal characteristics match those of their culture. This person-culture match effect is integral to many psychological theories and—as a driver of migration—carries much societal relevance. But do people differ in the degree to which person-culture match confers well-being benefits? In the first-ever empirical test of that question, we examined whether the person-culture match effect is moderated by basic personality traits—the Big Two and Big Five. We relied on self-reports from 2,672,820 people across 102 countries and informant reports from 850,877 people across 61 countries. Communion, agreeableness, and neuroticism exacerbated the person-culture match effect, whereas agency, openness, extraversion, and conscientiousness diminished it. People who possessed low levels of communion coupled with high levels of agency evidenced no well-being benefits from person-culture match, and people who possessed low levels of agreeableness and neuroticism coupled with high levels of openness, extraversion, and conscientiousness even evidenced well-being costs. Those results have implications for theories building on the person-culture match effect, illuminate the mechanisms driving that effect, and help explain failures to replicate it.